As part of ongoing quality assurance, Intel has discovered a design issue in a recently released support chip, the Intel 6 series, codenamed Cougar Point, and has implemented a silicon fix. In some cases, the SATA ports within the chipsets may degrade over time, potentially impacting the performance or functionality of SATA-linked devices such as hard disk drives and DVD-drives. The chipset is utilized in PCs with Intel's latest second-generation Intel Core processors, codenamed Sandy Bridge. Intel has stopped shipments of the affected support chip from its factories. Intel has corrected the design issue, and has begun manufacturing a new version of the support chip, which will resolve the issue. The Sandy Bridge microprocessor is unaffected and no other products are affected by this issue.

(NOTE - For the latest developments from every motherboard maker on this developing recall please see this PCSTATS article - Intel 6-Series Chipset Recall - Sandy Bridge Intel P67 & H67) "Being reasonable and willing to help you, our readers, we searched for available information on the problem. Since many would like to hear from Intel itself, we contacted Mikhail Rybakov, Intel PR Manager Russia/C.I.S., over the phone and asked him a few questions. Here's what we've managed to find out."

So what's the problem? The leakage current turned out to be higher than planned for one of the transistors. This happened because the dielectric layer turned out to be too thin for the chosen voltage, or the voltage was too high for that chip design. It's not clear how the error was made. Anyway, such things happen much more often than we hear about them. But in this case Intel is unlucky, because the problematic transistor is in the clock generator circuit responsible for SATA-300 ports (of which there are 4). In certain conditions this may result in controller synchronization errors, which, in turn, will lead to read and write errors. This may reduce performance of drives at best, as data will be read/written several times until confirmation. Under the least favorable conditions, data may be corrupted. This is not a certainty, but a possibility.

This is not a logical error in die topology (like a corrupt interconnection or something), but a potential problem that may show over time as a result of wear. Serious errors are detected as soon as the first wafer is made, because chips are run through a number of logic tests. How does one find a less serious error? All manufacturers use more or less similar accelerated aging methods. The same batch of chips is exposed to high temperatures in a heat chamber as well as high voltages to simulate prolonged wear. There are rather strict mathematical models which allow engineers to predict mean time between failure (MTBF) based on statistical damage results obtained in aforementioned wear tests. That's exactly what we're dealing with today: a prediction from Intel (we'll discuss exact changes and time periods later). One has to understand that it's a statistical estimate, not a fact. There are simply no 3-year old machines based on the new chipsets at the moment to speak of actual defects.

Since data stored on computers often costs much more than computers themselves (unless it's a gaming rig), Intel made a tough decision not to wait for actual trouble. As the Murphy's law states, "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong," so they had to look for a solution."

"As part of ongoing quality assurance, Intel Corporation has discovered a design issue in a recently released support chip, the Intel® 6 Series (and the Intel® C200 Series Chipset), and has implemented a silicon fix. In some cases, the Serial-ATA (SATA) ports within the chipsets may degrade over time, potentially impacting the performance or functionality of SATA-linked devices such as hard disk drives and DVD-drives. The chipset is utilized in PCs with Intel’s latest Second Generation Intel Core processors. Intel has stopped shipment of the affected support chip from its factories. Intel has corrected the design issue, and has begun manufacturing a new version of the support chip which will resolve the issue. The Sandy Bridge microprocessor is unaffected and no other products are affected by this issue.

The company expects to begin delivering the updated version of the chipset to customers in late February and expects full volume recovery in April. Intel stands behind its products and is committed to product quality. For computer makers and other Intel customers that have bought potentially affected chipsets or systems, Intel will work with its OEM partners to accept the return of the affected chipsets, and plans to support modifications or replacements needed on motherboards or systems. The systems with the affected support chips have only been shipping since January 9th and the company believes that relatively few consumers are impacted by this issue. The only systems sold to an end customer potentially impacted are Second Generation Core i5 and Core i7 quad core based systems. Intel believes that consumers can continue to use their systems with confidence, while working with their computer manufacturer for a permanent solution.

If you believe you may be affected by this issue, please contact your place of purchase, or your Intel Field Sales Representative."

(NOTE - For the latest developments from every motherboard maker on this developing recall please see this PCSTATS article - Intel 6-Series Chipset Recall - Sandy Bridge Intel P67 & H67) I just got off a conference call with Intel and it looks like they got a mess on their hands right now. Intel had a design oversight with one of the metal layers of their 6 series chipset, so they need a re-spin of the silicon to fix the issue. This issue is on all 'Cougar Town' 6 series chipsets and Intel said that slightly less than 8 million of these chipsets have already been made. All of those chipsets have Serial-ATA (SATA) ports within the chipsets that may degrade over time, potentially impacting the performance or functionality of SATA-linked devices such as hard disk drives and DVD-drives...

(NOTE - For the latest developments from every motherboard maker on this developing recall please see this PCSTATS article - Intel 6-Series Chipset Recall - Sandy Bridge Intel P67 & H67)
"Intel is telling us they have completely stopped shipping the
affected chipset and already begun production of the revised and fixed
version of the 6-series chipsets. But shipping of those chipsets
won't start until late February and full "inventory replacement" won't
happen until sometime in April. Intel has committed to working with
partners to help facilitate the recall of affected products once
production is in full swing, but this isn't something easy to do. You
can't just replace a hard drive or memory module here - full
motherboard replacement is going to be required on desktop and
notebook platforms - a costly error indeed. The company has declared
a $700M write off estimate for this cause."

"In some cases, the Serial-ATA (SATA) ports within the chipsets may degrade over time, potentially impacting the performance or functionality of SATA-linked devices such as hard disk drives and DVD-drives. "

"The error and source of degradation is in the silicon itself - not a driver or software or firmware error at all. In some cases Intel has seen silicon degradation in the section of the 6-series chipsets where SATA communication occurs. "

"When Intel launched their newest "Sandy Bridge" processors
earlier this month there were no Linux benchmark results available. We
were not seeded with any CPU in advance and the other publications that
have flings with Linux were unable to get the Linux graphics support
working. There is no "out of the box" Sandy Bridge support under Linux
with Ubuntu 10.10 and other distributions released in the past few
months. It was not until the time that Sandy Bridge launched that there
was the releases of Linux 2.6.37, Mesa 7.10, and the xf86-video-intel
2.14 DDX that are the versions reported to play well with the new Intel
graphics. Because of the lack of "out of the box" Linux support, there
was a very scathing review at SemiAccurate.com that went as far as
calling Sandy Bridge the biggest disappointment of the year. The code
was said to be ready, but there is a challenge in installing open-source
GPU drivers by many Linux users."

I don’t recall which movie it was, something that was highly acclaimed and after watching it with a friend, he claimed that it sucked. It sucked for the simple reason that he had read and heard so much of be buzz around it that the real thing simply did not live up to his expectations.
Something similar is happening now with respect to Sandy Bridge. The prelaunch expectations were that it would stomp everything by a land slide and now it only turns out to be about the fastest CPU ever released by Intel. And the rest of the world. How disappointing is that?
Sarcasm aside Sandy Bridge has come and the initial impression has been rather overwhelming. Particularly with respect to the energy efficiency, there is not quite anything like SB out there. The same goes for the overclocking potential, yet, almost everybody complains about the lack of real life OC achievements. It’s a cruel world that Sandy was thrown into …
On the downside, there are certain layers of hype that need to be peeled off, particularly with respect to Intel releasing what might be called an immature platform. OpenGL does not work, AVX functionality is crippled by the cache interconnect and possibly by the Uops cache and Integer AVX will not even be functional until 3 generations down the road. Ok, we can live with the latter, it appears rather inconsequential for the time being. The L2 connectivity is also something we can live with, 20-30% performance increase at the same power budget are very significant. And OpenGL has somehow outlived its usefulness.

Intel plans to outsource the production of its Panther Point chipsets which will be paired with Ivy Bridge CPUs to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacture Company (TSMC), according to industry sources. Intel is scheduled to launch the Ivy Bridge CPUs in the first quarter of 2012.

"In Win's Griffin chassis has a lot going for it. A budget case with good cooling (due in large part to the big side panel fan,) is always good to see and a real boon to the enthusiast with limited funds. With a distinctive look and nice features like a hidden I/O panel and tool-free drive clips, the Griffin delivers a lot of bang for the buck."

SiS’ newest southbridge chipset, the SiS965, was designed with the latest market trends in mind, featuring support for next generation technologies that are redefining the PC industry. The SiS965 comes complete with support for PCI Express, which makes it ideal for connecting high-speed peripheral devices for multimedia applications, as well as a Gigabit Ethernet MAC.
The SiS965 features a Gigabit Ethernet MAC built into the chip. With this architecture, not only are costs saved, but also 2 Gigabit Ethernet connections can be enabled from Gigabit Ethernet MAC and external PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet card, giving customers more flexibility.
This feature gives customers more options in adopting the advantages of high-speed Ethernet connections. Gigabit Ethernet promises to revolutionize the world of data transmission. New multimedia applications that will benefit from Gigabit Ethernet include downloadable movie, television and music services which connect through the Internet, bypassing traditional methods of delivery.
With the SiS965 Giga MAC, users and vendors alike will benefit enormously from the implementation of next-generation Ethernet technology in a cost effective and high performance chip architecture:

Beginners Guides: Repairing a Cracked / Broken Notebook LCD ScreenOct 02 | Beginners GuidesRating:A broken or cracked LCD screen makes a laptop utterly useless, good thing
PCSTATS can show you how to replace that busted laptop screen with a minimum of fuss and for less money than a service center charges. PCSTATS will be fixing a cracked LCD screen on a Lenovo T530 ThinkPad notebook, the general procedures outlined here work for any notebook though.